I applied with this company and recently received an email from someone there saying I have passed the written portion of the application and they wish to set up a brief phone interview with me. I've been shopping over five years for various MSC's and this is the first who's done phone interviews.

I've not found much information online regarding them, at least not from a shopper's perspective. Does anyone here work with them? What do you think of them as a company? Is their pay competitive and the reports reasonable for the compensation? How is their communication? Are schedulers accessible and fair?

Wow, no one here has any dealings with them?

Evidently not. They are discussed some at Volition.com but appear to be a very very small company. Comments about them go back as far as 2003 and seem overall lukewarm positives. They were in Indiana and Southwest Ohio and as of late last year were in AZ, IL, IN, KY, NM, NV, OH, & TN.

Hey, Flash. I saw that at Volition and hoped someone would know something here. I know a few of their clients and they do have shops not too far from me. I'll give them a try, I think.

My 'rule of thumb' is if I see a new-to-me company that appears to be legit I will register. If they have something in my area I will look for other shoppers' experiences. For both super negatives and super positives I will look at the poster and what other types of posts they have posted. Someone who primarily does y/n shops is going to be unhappy with narrative, someone who primarily does narrative is likely to find the fees for y/n shops are inadequate. And of course is the negative poster so focused on badmouthing the company that it is a vendetta and is the super positive poster a shill?

If there seems a balance that tips to the positive for what I would consider 'real shoppers sharing', then I will try a shop that does not require substantial financial risk. I won't do 6 of them, I will do 1 or possibly 2 to get the use out of the study time. I will make a note of when I expect to be paid.

The company then will be evaluated on my side by 1) how well they communicate (especially if I have a problem), 2) the quality of the instructions, 3) the quality of the job/report, 4) the quality of their follow up and 5) when they pay.

I generally work with a handful of new-to-me companies per year and some may do very well by me for the first few shops before things start to slacken out. There are a number of companies I have done only one or a few shops for and they failed the above 5 tests either initially or subsequently such that they are on my "don't bother unless it is a really really juicy shop" list.

This particular company, because of the overall lukewarm positives I suspect is a ho-hum company. It is probably worthwhile doing a shop for them if it is a client you could get some value out of. So for me, if it was a dog food shop I wouldn't bother since I don't have a dog. If it was a Mexican food restaurant I wouldn't bother because we are not big on Mexican food. If it was a burger shop or a restaurant we had noted with possible interest or a new bank in the area or other things that I was interested in, I would try it even if the fee seemed low.

I like the way you think. I go through a similar thought process. This one's mainstays seem to be car washes and restaurants, so places with value to me. I'm not sure yet what other clients they serve.

In such a case I would check the restaurant menu on line and see whether a 'normal' type meal would be covered by the reimbursement before I committed. You can probably see if the visit is for one or two and whether it requires alcohol so you can plan accordingly. Some chains do NOT advertise their prices so it is not unheard of to call and ask about pricing if there are not on-line reviews that talk about pricing. Some places have pricing on their take out menu but not on the restaurant menu, so that gives you at least some idea of what you are getting into. Systematically I find that meals for two are beverages, an appetizer to share, 2 different entrees and often a dessert to share.

While the house vehicles can all use a car wash, I always come out of those shops feeling 'robbed' because I just don't find the value there as the jobs are done so poorly. I would be livid if one of those shops did not get reimbursed as I can do a better job in my driveway in half an hour (if I would only get around to doing it) and what I am actually paying them to have done if I spend an hour on it. On more than one car wash I have complained and they have taken the vehicle through for a second pass--which may or may not result in a better job. So I personally would not take a car wash as a first job to evaluate the company.

Hi there,

I did one shop for this company long again, but I am still in their data base. This month they began some shops in my area which will be regular monthly shops.

I applied and accepted one. I was assigned the shop, which was a video shop, and the equipment was shipped to me in a timely manner. I did the shop and returned the equipment. The site is just too difficult to maneuver. When I don't use the intial login, my password does not work. When the email came assigning the job, the link to login didn't work. I had to get a new login. When I used their link to access the shop for inputting the data, again, the password did not work. It only works on my initial site saved in my favorites.

I struggled to get the report in, but I got a report submitted. Today, the company says there is no invoice submitted, which is necessary to be paid. I seached the world over, but there is no link to access my submitted report, and there is no link to submit an invoice.

I won't waste another minute of my time on this site. I submitted an email telling them that the only way I will be paid is if they do the invoice, because there is no link for invoices.

I say... stay clear... it's a unique site for finding jobs, for inputting the data, and it's going to be difficult to be paid. Their information says payment is via check in 60-90 days--another reason to find work elsewhere.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/16/2012 02:41PM by Ms.Baker.

So TechSavvy,

Did you end up doing any shops with them?

I completed a single assignment for this MSC approx. 5 yrs ago. While the food was delicious, the report was very lengthy for a cafeteria; as I recall, it was in excess of 1 1/2 hrs. When I did not receive my pay, I contacted the owner who informed me it was the company's practice to not pay a shopper until there was more than a single completed job. Due to that verbiage not being on the site, she relented and I was paid. In addition, I also found the site to be extremely difficult to navigate, but that was 1/2 decade in the past.

The part about not paying until there's more than one completed job is ridiculous. =(

Does anyone know if the payment-until-you-do-more-than-one job policy is still in force?

How could something like that fly? There is no reasonable excuse for holding payment after an assignment is completed, accepted and paid by the client.

No... payment will be slow, but there will be a payment.